US embassy cable - 05BRUSSELS541

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 000541 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/07/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, GG, EUN, OSCE, RU, USEU BRUSSELS 
SUBJECT: FEBRUARY 8 EU APPROVAL UNLIKELY: GEORGIA BMO 
 
REF: STATE 21669 
 
Classified By: USEU POLOFF TODD HUIZINGA. REASONS: 1.4 (B, D) 
 
1. (C) Poloff delivered reftel demarche on February 7 to key 
Solana adviser Kees van Rij (protect), Head of the EU Council 
Secretariat Policy Unit Task Force on the Caucasus, and Mario 
 
SIPDIS 
Mariani (protect), OSCE desk officer in the External 
Relations Directorate-General of the European Commission. 
They both said they would circulate our points and ensure 
that they receive consideration at the February 8 EU 
Political and Security Committee (PSC) meeting.  Van Rij said 
the PSC had three main options on the table: (1) the 
preferred option, namely to make some "tweaks" in order to 
get Russian agreement on continuing the OSCE Border 
Monitoring Operation (BMO); (2) a Georgia BMO run by the EU 
under the OSCE aegis; and (3) a fall-back train-and-equip 
program for Georgia.  Van Rij remarked that these three 
options appeared to fit well with reftel points. 
 
2. (C) Both van Rij and Mariani predicted a consensus in 
favor of an EU BMO would likely not/not be an outcome of the 
February 8 PSC meeting, given the reticence of some EU member 
states to risk offending Russia.  Both also said that Russian 
agreement to continuing the OSCE BMO remained highly 
unlikely.  Van Rij said he was traveling, with Luxembourg EU 
presidency reps, to Vienna on February 14, where EU-OSCE 
talks would include the BMO issue.  Finally, van Rij said the 
issue would be on the agenda of the EU-Russia Ministerial 
Troika on February 28. 
 
SCHNABEL 
.